Monthly Archives: September 2018

If you constantly try to convince people around you that you have a friend only you can see who meets with you in the park every afternoon, more sensible people will assume that you have some sort of mental illness. If you work in an organization that constantly tries to convince people that they have a friend in the sky who watches over them, the organization will be given tax-free status. Depending upon the organization, you might be provided with a ready supply of children to play with and be transferred to another branch of that organization if you are caught taking advantage of the children kindly made available to … Continue reading →

I have finally deleted the only remaining account I had on the social media platform run by the company Facebook. This will free up lots of time previously wasted in the orchestrated cyberworld of Facebook, enabling it to be spent in the real world. People can reach me by email (remember email?) at the address disclosed on the page appropriately named Email.

I have often said that, if Trump hinted at making military moves that could plunge the world into war (particularly nuclear war), I would think it reasonable for the US military to march to the White House and explain things to Trump. It is looking more and more like Trump is intending to interfere with and orchestrate an end to an investigation of himself and the people around him. If that turns out to be likely (and it sounds more likely every day), extreme action might be necessary. I do not advocate violence, but I would not shed a tear if a US citizen took Trump down in the interest … Continue reading →

The real world (including most people addicted to Facebook) doesn’t give a yoctofuck* about: the trip you just started; that you were upgraded (or not upgraded) to first class; that you arrived at your destination; the country you’re visiting; the city you’re visiting; the bar you’re visiting; the drink you’re drinking; the breakfast you’re eating; the lunch you’re eating; the dinner you’re eating; the hotel you’re staying in; that you’ve come back from your trip; your qualification as a certified trainer (and downline developer) for some new-age feelgood activity; your dietary religion; a picture of your cat; a picture of your dog; a picture of you standing in front of … Continue reading →

If you spend the amount of time required to create a Facebook persona that securely posits you as the best thing in your field since sliced bread, it’s unlikely that you will have the time to actually live that persona by walking that walk. I sometimes wonder whether people who post over 50 times each day (sometimes at great length) ever step back for a moment and think about whether people will believe that they are actually walking that walk. Some of these personas are at best harmless fantasies, but some could also indicate a serious addiction to social media and an obsessive need to be liked and looked up … Continue reading →

I have just finished reading Jaron Lanier’s Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now” and find that Lanier’s revelations about what social media platforms are doing pretty much match my apprehensions about social media. In fact, in some areas, particularly regarding the automatic fine tuning of and learning by algorithms, Lanier reveals ways that opaque social media algorithms operate that I had not imagined. Lanier refers to what social media platforms do as BUMMER (Behaviors of Users Modified and Made into an Empire for Rent), although he appropriately replaces modified with manipulated where appropriate, and it is clear that the term manipulation is often appropriate. He lists the … Continue reading →

Ok, it starts again from these Chinese cretins. This sleazy Chinese translation broker, CCJK, must actually be operated by people who have escaped from a home for the terminally stupid. And they claim to have ISO 9001 certification. That very statement is powerful, since, taken together with the laughable content of this email, it demonstrates how meaningless the ISO certification is. I get about one of these ridiculous offers of translation service from CCJK per week. They arrive from people using various names and are almost all (including this one) sent from a gmail address. The last four times they vomited this shit at me they received a newly created generic … Continue reading →

Effective immediately, I will no longer suggest to Japanese-to-English translators who have posed questions on various fora that they ask the author. The reason is simple: almost no translators have access to the author, either directly or via an agent/broker. Suggestions to contact the author not only are not useful but also annoy translators by reminding them of their position on the food chain. It is clear that the desirable situation is one in which, faced with a problem in understanding what the author meant, the translator can ask the author. Almost no translators are in that situation, hence this decision to stop the annoying comments.